The Week Ahead 9th October 2020

Dear parents
Welcome back to our pupils and families after the national holiday break. I hope it proved to be a restful time for all our community. I am delighted to extend a similarly warm welcome to those teachers who completed their 14-day quarantine period over the break: Mrs Jan Bennett (head of the Nest); Ms Rashmi Dixon (reception); Mrs Melissa Meikle (year 4); Ms Mary Stevens (English) and Ms Kathryn Pelham (maths) are all in school as I write, with Mr and Mrs Lane due to join us at the start of the coming week. Mrs Monica Mukherjee also returns after her enforced absence in India. The difficulties of international travel and in obtaining visas are well known, and I am sure all parents will recognise the considerable challenges these colleagues have faced in getting safely to Tianjin. You will be able to learn more about each new member of staff as we run a series of articles about them over the coming weeks.
Aside from all our new staff, parents will note a second development we unveil this month. Helping our families to understand more about our school, its curriculum, examination courses, assessment practices and the ways in which parents can engage with our teachers and leaders has long been a priority for us. I am fully aware of how difficult it can be to those unfamiliar with British and international education to understand these complexities. There are of course many existing sources of information which are already available to families, including a revised website (available in both English and Chinese language versions) and a new communications’ app, due in November. To these, we have added a parent relations’ team from across the staff – both academic and non-academic. Under the leadership of the Deputy Head, Dr Yang Yang, we will use the team to reach out to individuals and small groups across our community to help provide more information and insight so that more light is shed on all aspects of a Wellington education.
Really great schools across the world have one thing in common: the relationship between the school and home is strong, open, and informed. In this way, the education of their pupils is conducted in a genuinely collaborative spirit, with families and teachers working together, ensuring that each child has the greatest chance to reach his or her full potential. Our commitment to our pupils – your children – means that we too wish to cement the relationship further, and I see the parent relations’ team as a powerful additional tool for raising the engagement of our community. It is not a replacement for any of the day-to-day means of communicating with the school (through the class teacher or housemaster, for example), but rather is more a more nuanced and flexible way of gaining an insight into the education we provide, as well as making the school more responsive to issues or concerns. I very much hope that you all see the benefits of the work of groups such as the parent relations’ team over the course of the year.
Best wishes
Julian Jeffrey
MASTER

Online Meeting
1400hrs-1500hrs, Thursday
15th October

This week’s Meet the Master and Bursar slot is open to parents of pupils in all year groups. If you would like to attend, please confirm via email with Ms Emma Shi (emma.shi@wellingtoncollege.cn) by Wednesday 14th October.

Online Meeting
0900hrs-1015hrs, Wednesday
14th October

Parent briefings are held on Wednesday mornings usually from 0900hrs-1015hrs. Parents will have the chance to engage with the school in sessions that cover all aspects of your child’s education, from the Early Years to A levels and university admissions.
This briefing will consist of information about the current science curriculum in the Senior School. By attending, you will gain an insight into the Key Stage 3 curriculum and how we apply it to our school and pupils, as well as an explanation of exam options for pupils at Key Stage 4 and 5. Sessions will be recorded, and a link to the meeting will be shared to all families via Teams.

Online University Fair

Due to travel restrictions this year, our University Fair will take on a different format. We are pleased to be offering a series of online presentations (three per week) from universities from all over the world. Over 200 universities from all over the world will be in attendance so this is a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to gain information first-hand.

Next week we have two universities presenting live online – the University of Victoria and the University of Sheffield – as well as a recorded session from Hult Business School. The presentations will take place in the Sixth Form Seminar room and all pupils from years 10-13 are all welcome to attend. Presentations will start at 1320hrs, and early lunch is available. Pupils will need to contact a member of the university team if they wish to attend.

• Tuesday 13th October 1320hrs – The University of Victoria (live)

• Wednesday 14th October 1320hrs – The University of Sheffield (live)

• Thursday 15th October 1320hrs – Hult International Business School (recorded)

There will be a live online presentation from Oxford University in the Seldon Theatre on Wednesday 14th of October at 1600hrs. Senior school pupils and parents are invited to attend. The presentation will be delivered in English on Microsoft Teams and will be recorded for the benefit of those who are unable to attend. If you have any questions that you would like to ask, please email them (in Chinese or English) to luyi.feng@wellingtoncollege.cn by 1700 hours on Monday 12th October. Pupils will need to organise their own transportation back home.

Reader of the Week

The English department is delighted to announce that we will reinstate the Reader of the Week reading scheme for KS3 pupils. Each week, the English teachers will nominate the name of a pupil who has particularly impressed them with their independent reading: for example, by reading outside of lesson time, engaging in discussions about a book they have been reading or writing a book review.
We are delighted to announce that this week’s reader of the week is Mia in year 9, who was nominated by Ms Chapman for reading the dystopian novel ‘The Hunger Games’ in her free time.
Congratulations Mia for being our first Reader of the Week this academic year – who will be next?

Pink Day
Friday, 16th October

Wellington pupils, parents and staff will celebrate Pink Day. We would like to invite our pupils to show their support for the Tianjin Cancer Hospital Prevention Centre by wearing an item of pink clothing on Friday October 16th and donate 10RMB / item of pinkness.
After the last year's successful Pink Day celebration that brought together members of our community, we would like to organise another 'pink' event. This year we would like to invite our ladies from Friends of Wellington to join is in our 10km walk on Saturday, 17th October. If you are interested in joining us please contact Maja Rogic at maja.rogic@wellingtoncollege.cn for more information.

All funds raised across the ISCOT schools will be donated to the TICC's charity campaign – a hugely worthy cause.

Many thanks to all our generous sponsors for their donations to the 100km walk. We completed the walk on Monday afternoon, deep in the heart of Sanlitun in Beijing. The walking took 19 hours and 28 mins at an average speed of 5.1km/hr. We are so delighted to have raised over 42,000RMB for our two local children’s charities.

Thanks also to Mr Bai (not pictured) for being such a wonderful team member

Our new initiative for the Wellington community got underway last weekend with the first section of WellingTEN walks. We had a wonderful time with parents, pupils and friends of Wellington joining in this 10km-walk.

Over this academic year, we aim to walk 100km in total, get to know each other better while walking around Tianjin, and all of it for a great cause – raising money for local children’s charities. In June 2021, certificates will be awarded to those who complete the full 100km and to those who donate the most for charity. 

If you are willing to take part in this great event, please scan the QR code below for the registration of the next event in October. Pupils below Year10 need to be accompanied by the parents.